Clinton to meet abductees' families in Japan

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday that when she visits Tokyo next week, she will meet with the families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents, highlighting an emotionally sensitive issue at the same time she extended an olive branch to the government in Pyongyang.

During a speech in New York before the Asia Society, Clinton said the Obama administration was willing to grant North Korea a range of benefits – including normalized relations, a peace treaty and energy and economic incentives – “if North Korea is genuinely prepared to completely and verifiably eliminate their nuclear weapons program.”

Those elements of a final agreement had been previously embraced by the Bush administration. Clinton's phrasing – “if North Korea is genuinely prepared” – suggested the Obama administration might be willing to take some of these steps before North Korea's nuclear program is completely eliminated.

The six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program were stymied for months after the Bush administration in October removed North Korea from the State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism in the hope of securing an agreement to verify aspects of its nuclear program. But North Korea balked at publicly committing to terms the Bush administration claimed had been reached in a private deal.

Bush's delisting decision upset many in Japan because the United States had long said it would not remove North Korea from the list as long as the abductee issue was unresolved.

Japan has insisted that North Korea first provide details on the abductions of Japanese citizens by the reclusive nation during the 1970s and '80s, apparently to obtain Japanese teachers. North Korea has conceded the abductions took place and returned five Japanese, but has refused to provide details on others, who it says have died.